Fostering Self-Regulation in Infants and Toddlers with FASDs

培养患有 FASD 的婴幼儿的自我调节能力

• 批准号: 8131353
• 负责人: Blair Paley
• 金额: $ 34.64万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-30 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8131353
• 关键词: Fostering; Self; Regulation; Infants; Toddlers

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Researchers have demonstrated that in human infants, prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is associated with problems with state and autonomic regulation, increased post-stress cortisol levels, higher levels of irritability, increased negative affect, and increased level of activity. These findings suggest that PAE can profoundly compromise an infant's capacity for self-regulation, which in turn may place them well on course for a negative developmental trajectory. Deficits in self-regulation can confer further vulnerability on the alcohol- exposed infant by compromising early parent-child relationships, impairing a child's ability to manage stressful situations, interfering with learning and mastery of developmentally appropriate tasks, and potentially impacting early brain development. Strikingly, there are currently no evidence-based interventions designed for infants and toddlers with PAE or who have been diagnosed with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Given the persistence and severity of many alcohol-induced deficits, and the extremely poor long-term outcomes of individuals affected by PAE, especially for those whom do not receive the benefit or early intervention or a stable, nurturing caregiving environment, the need to develop effective treatments for infants and toddlers in this high-risk population is urgent. Early intervention aimed at enhancing these children's capacity to regulate their emotions and behavior would potentially represent a major advance in efforts to reduce the long-term adverse outcomes for these children. Moreover, as the consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure are likely to reverberate well beyond those experienced directly by the alcohol-exposed individual, interventions that operate at multiple levels of the family system are likely to be the most effective. Thus the proposed study entails an innovative multi-component intervention to foster self-regulation in infants and toddlers in foster or adoptive care with a history of PAE or a diagnosis of an FASD. Two components, a parent education and advocacy module and an attachment-based parent group, will focus on improving parents' knowledge and skills that will enhance their ability to respond to their children in ways that support the development of self- regulation. A third component, a music-based parent-child play group, will serve to promote positive parent- child interactions and is based on findings that exposure to singing and music can enhance self-regulation in young children. Improving parental sensitivity, increasing parental commitment, decreasing parental stress, enhancing the quality of the parent-child relationship, and ultimately, fostering the child's capacity for self- regulation may all play a critical role in circumventing a cascade of negative developmental outcomes associated with PAE. Furthermore, the aim of this multi-component to address a core deficit-impairment in self-regulation--would likely have relevant applications for other high-risk infants and toddlers presenting with other neurodevelopmental disorders. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Children with prenatal alcohol exposure often experience emotional and behavioral problems throughout life. The goal of this study is to test an intervention designed to help infants and toddlers learn skills that will help them manage their emotions and behaviors and teach parents how to support their children's development of those skills. Teaching children with prenatal alcohol exposure these skills may help reduce their risk for negative long-term outcomes, such as delinquency, school failure, and mental health problems.

描述(申请人提供)：研究人员已经证明，在人类婴儿中，产前酒精暴露(PAE)与状态和自主神经调节问题、应激后皮质醇水平升高、易怒程度更高、负性情绪增加和活动水平增加有关。这些发现表明，PAE可以深刻地损害婴儿的自我调节能力，这反过来可能会使他们走上负面的发展轨道。自我调节的缺陷会损害早期的亲子关系，损害儿童处理压力情况的能力，干扰学习和掌握适合发育的任务，并可能影响早期大脑发育，从而使暴露在酒精中的婴儿更加脆弱。值得注意的是，目前还没有针对患有PAE或被诊断为胎儿酒精谱障碍(FASD)的婴儿和幼儿设计的循证干预措施。鉴于许多酒精引起的缺陷持续和严重，以及受PAE影响的个人的长期结果极其糟糕，特别是对于那些没有得到好处或早期干预或没有稳定的养育环境的人来说，迫切需要为这一高危人群中的婴幼儿开发有效的治疗方法。旨在增强这些儿童调节情绪和行为能力的早期干预可能代表着在努力减少这些儿童的长期不利后果方面取得了重大进展。此外，由于产前酒精暴露的后果可能远远超出酒精暴露个人直接经历的影响，在家庭系统的多个层面运作的干预措施可能是最有效的。因此，拟议的研究需要一种创新的多成分干预措施，以促进寄养或收养中有PAE病史或FASD诊断的婴幼儿的自我调节。两个组成部分，即家长教育和宣传单元和基于依恋的家长小组，将侧重于提高家长的知识和技能，以增强他们以支持自我管理发展的方式回应子女的能力。第三个组成部分是以音乐为基础的亲子游戏小组，将有助于促进积极的亲子互动，基于对唱歌和音乐的接触可以增强幼儿的自我调节的发现。提高父母的敏感性，增加父母的承诺，减轻父母的压力，提高亲子关系的质量，最终培养孩子的自我调节能力，这些都可能在规避与PAE相关的一连串负面发展后果方面发挥关键作用。此外，这一多组成部分的目的是解决核心缺陷--自我调节方面的损害--可能适用于其他患有其他神经发育障碍的高危婴儿和幼儿。 与公共健康相关：出生前接触酒精的儿童在一生中经常经历情绪和行为问题。这项研究的目的是测试一种旨在帮助婴幼儿学习技能的干预措施，这些技能将帮助他们管理自己的情绪和行为，并教会父母如何支持孩子发展这些技能。教有产前酒精暴露的儿童这些技能可能有助于降低他们出现负面长期后果的风险，如青少年犯罪、学业失败和心理健康问题。